A dead bird can tell you what went wrong overnight, if you know where to look. Here is a careful twenty-minute check you can do in the house.
Halaal Farms Ghana team23 August 2026 · 11 min read
The first dead bird of the morning usually gets picked up, carried round the back and forgotten before the tea is ready. On a busy farm that is understandable. But you have just thrown away the only evidence you had about what happened overnight.
One dead bird may be nothing. Three birds dead by the same drinker, all of them the same size and all lying in the same corner, is the flock telling you something. The trouble is that most of us only hear it after the fourth or fifth bird.
This guide is about the twenty minutes you can spend on a dead bird before it goes anywhere else. It is not a diagnosis, and a farmer with a knife cannot name the germ behind a death. What the check does is give you notes you can trust. You can hand those notes to the vet or the lab, and they will tell you if you have one unlucky bird or a problem for the whole house.
Before you touch the bird, think about who else is around. Keep children and visitors well away from the table. A few poultry diseases can pass to people, and the ones you cannot see are the ones to respect. Set yourself up like this:
Freshness matters more than most people expect. A bird that died a few hours ago, in the cool of the morning, still tells you a lot. A bird that has been lying in the sun since yesterday has started to break down inside, and its organs will look different whatever killed it. If that is what you have, mark the spot, remove the bird with gloves and call for advice before you spend your time on it.
If you cannot examine the bird today, do not freeze it unless the lab asks you to. Seal it in a bag and keep it cool. Freezing damages tissue and makes the results harder to read. Ask the lab what they prefer, because some want the whole bird and others want specific organs packed separately.
Start with the whole bird, and write down what you see before you touch a blade. Feel the breastbone. Is it sharp, like the keel of a boat, with little flesh on either side? Or is the breast well covered? A bird that was thin for a week is a different problem from one that was in good shape the evening before.
Move to the head. Look at the comb and wattles. A pale comb points to blood loss or anaemia, while a very dark or bluish comb suggests poor oxygen. Check the eyes for swelling, cloudiness or discharge, and check the nostrils for mucus. A bird with a swollen face and sticky eyes is telling you about its airways, so keep that in mind when you reach the lungs.
Then look at the back end. Check the feathers around the vent for dirt or the dried mess of diarrhoea. Look at the feet and hocks for sores. If you find droppings on the bird, note their colour and texture.
Last, think about how the bird was lying when you found it. On its side or its back? Alone, or in a heap? Near the water or in a corner? Did it die with its wings spread, the way birds do when they are fighting for air? Did it look normal the day before? These notes cost nothing, and they often matter more than the organs, because they tell you what the bird was doing before it died.
Lay the bird on its back on the table. Use the scissors to cut the skin from the vent up to the breastbone, then peel the skin back on both sides. Look at the fat and muscle underneath first. Yellow fat is normal in a healthy bird. A bird with almost no fat has been losing condition for some time.
Next, cut through the ribs on each side with the scissors and lift the breastbone away. Go slowly, because this is where the organs sit. Do not pull them out. Look at them where they lie, then lift each one out and set it on a clean tray or a sheet of newspaper that you will burn later.
Start with the crop and the gullet, the tube that runs up the neck. Is the crop full, empty or swollen? Is there feed in it, and does it smell sour? Feed in the crop tells you the bird was eating. A crop full of mouldy or fermented mash tells you that the feed or the water may be at fault. A crop that is still full on a bird that died in the morning often means the bird was not emptying properly overnight.
Then look at the stomach, which in a bird has two parts. The glandular stomach sits just before the gizzard. The gizzard is the muscular part with the hard lining. Open it by cutting along its side and look inside. Grit and small stones are normal in a layer. A gizzard with dark, tarry or bloody contents, or a lining that peels off easily, needs a note.
Now the intestines. Lay them out gently. A healthy gut looks even in colour, the wall is firm and the contents are formed or semi-formed. Blood, pale watery contents or patches of inflamed lining are worth writing down. So is gas in the gut, which can point to a stressed or infected bird, but can also come from a bird that died while bloated after a heavy feed.
The liver should be smooth, even and a dark, glossy brown. Spots, pale patches, a swollen liver or a greenish tint all need a lab opinion. Do not guess a disease name from the liver alone, because several very different infections leave similar marks.
Next, the heart, which sits near the top of the chest. Look at the sac around it, which should be thin and clear. If the sac is thick, cloudy or full of fluid, write it down. Fat on the surface of the heart is common in older birds, but in a young bird with a swollen belly it can mean something more.
Air sacs are thin, clear membranes around the lungs and the organs in the chest and belly. In a healthy bird they look like very thin, clean plastic. If they are cloudy, thickened or have a cheesy material on them, the bird had an airway infection, and the lab will want to hear about it.
Healthy lungs look pink and spongy, and they feel light. Dark, heavy or firm lungs suggest congestion or pneumonia. If the bird was breathing hard before it died, that together with heavy lungs is a strong clue.
The kidneys sit against the back of the body. They should be dark red-brown and smooth. White chalky deposits on the kidneys, or in the small tubes running from them, are often a sign of dehydration. In a hot house with a failed drinker, that is not hard to imagine. The spleen is a small dark organ near the gizzard, and an enlarged or mottled spleen also needs a note.
In young birds, look for the bursa of Fabricius. It is a small pouch just above the vent, and it is part of the bird's defence system. A healthy bursa is clearly visible, the right size for the age of the bird, and firm. A swollen, jelly-like or shrunken bursa tells you something important about the immune system of the flock, and the lab will ask about it.
Use the table as a memory aid, not a diagnosis. Each change can have more than one cause, and two different diseases can leave the same mark. The table tells you which notes to make and which questions to put to the vet.
| Area | What a healthy bird shows | What a change can point to |
|---|---|---|
| Crop | Soft, with feed in it and no sour smell | Hard or gassy crop, or a sour smell: a blockage or sour crop |
| Gizzard lining | Firm lining, with grit present in layers | Dark, tarry or bloody contents, or a lining that peels easily |
| Intestines | Even colour, firm wall, formed contents | Blood, watery or pale contents, or inflamed patches |
| Liver | Smooth, glossy, even brown | Spots, pale patches, swelling or a greenish tint |
| Heart sac | Thin and clear | Thick, cloudy or fluid-filled sac |
| Air sacs | Thin and clear | Cloudy, thickened or cheesy material |
| Lungs | Pink, spongy and light | Dark, heavy or firm lungs |
| Kidneys | Smooth and dark red-brown | White chalky deposits in the kidneys or tubes |
| Bursa (young birds) | Clear, firm and the right size for its age | Swollen or shrunken: can point to a viral disease that hits immunity |
A single bad bird is usually just a single bad bird. A bird that was hurt by a pecking mate, or one that swallowed something sharp, will show you that clearly. The trick is knowing when the pattern starts to matter.
Count every death for a week. Write down the date, the age of the birds, the house or pen, and whether the deaths are scattered or clustered. A flock that loses one bird a day in a well-run house may simply be showing the normal loss of a large group. A flock that loses four in a morning, all from the same corner, is telling a different story.
Then look at the money. Our day-old Ross 308 and Cobb 500 chicks are from GH₵1,000 a box of 50, which works out at about GH₵20 a chick at the from-price. Confirm today's figure with us before you plan around it, because prices move with the season. If you lose three chicks from one box, that is about GH₵60 of chick cost gone before a single bag of feed has been opened.
Scale it up. Good management in Ghana usually keeps mortality around 3 to 5 percent, and poor management can push it to 10 to 20 percent. In a flock of 500 birds, the gap between 4 percent and 15 percent is 55 birds. At today's chick price that is more than GH₵1,000 in chicks alone. If those birds would have gone to market, each one also represents roughly GH₵34 to GH₵39 of feed already eaten, based on about 4.2 kg of feed per bird and a 50 kg bag at GH₵400 to GH₵470. These are rough illustrations, not a quote, but they show why twenty minutes with a dead bird is worth it.
Most farms do not need software for this. An exercise book does the job. For each dead bird, write the date, the age in days, the house, what you saw on the outside, what you found in the crop and organs, and what you did about it. Add the feed bag and batch number, and a line for any change you made that week, such as a new feed, a new drinker or a cold night.
After two weeks the pattern usually shows itself. Deaths may cluster on hot afternoons, follow the switch to a new bag, or keep turning up with the same liver note. A book like that is also the first thing a vet will ask for, and it saves time on the phone.
Take photos too. A clear picture of the organs, with a coin or a ruler beside them for scale, is worth more than a long description. Keep the photos with the book and label them with the date.
Stop your own examination and call for help when you see several birds dying in a day, birds with nervous signs such as twisted necks, paralysis or a sudden drop in egg output, or deaths that carry on after you have changed the feed and the water. Do not wait for the flock to get worse before you make the call.
In most cases the first call goes to the district veterinary office, which can advise on the nearest diagnostic laboratory and what it needs. Ask them three things: which organs or whole birds they want, how the bird should be packed and kept cool on the way, and how long you have before the sample is too old to read. Write the answers down. The rules are simple, but they are easy to forget when the birds are dying.
Send your notes, your photos and the death book entry with the bird. A sample with no history is hard to read. A sample with two weeks of records, a feed bag number and a clear list of what changed is one a good lab can work with.
Yes, if it has been kept cool and is not badly decomposed. Early examination is always better. If the bird has lain in the sun for a day, the organs change and the findings become harder to trust.
Yes. Some diseases can pass to people, and you cannot tell from the skin which birds carry them. Gloves, a disinfectant bucket and washing your hands afterwards cost very little.
Write down where the fluid is, roughly how much there is and what colour it looks. Fluid in the belly or in the heart sac is a clue to a circulation problem or an infection, and the vet needs that exact detail.
Deep burial away from water is common, and so is burning where it is allowed. Whatever you choose, cover the carcass with lime or soil quickly, and keep dogs and other animals away. Your vet can advise on the best method for your site.
Call the same day if you see more than a couple of deaths, nervous signs, or a sudden drop in eating or drinking. Waiting a week to see whether it passes is the mistake that costs the most birds.
A post-mortem is only useful if the birds you examine are the ones you planned to raise. If your death book keeps showing the same things, read our guides on sudden death in big broilers and sour and impacted crops, and check how your chicks were brooded with the night checks guide.
When you are ready to order, send the order form on our site or call 024 915 1503. An order starts with a message, not with money. We confirm the price, hatch date and delivery cost before you pay, and any chick dead on arrival is replaced free in the next hatch. Current prices are on the price page, and the steps are on how to order.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
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